[Rarebooks] The Theory of Relativity, 1875 (!!!)

[Michael John Thompson]

Offering:

S. Tolver Preston. PHYSICS OF THE ETHER. London: E. & F.N. Spon, 48,
Charing Cross / New York: 446 Broome Street. 1875. First edition, later
issue. Sheets of the first edition bound with new preliminaries bearing a
"New Preface" dated August, 1883. Octavo, original brown cloth titled in
gilt; a few small stains, a very good copy, clean and attractive. 

The first book to explain the Theory of Relativity, preceding Einstein by
30 years. Einstein is generally credited with expressing the theory in 1905
with his famous equation E=mc2, first published as "On the Electrodynamics
of Moving Bodies", 1905.

On page 115 of the present work, Preston states: "To give an idea, first,
of the enormous intensity of the store of energy attainable by means of
that extensive state of subdivision of matter which renders a high normal
speed practicable, it may be computed that a quantity of matter
representing a total mass of one grain, and possessing the normal velocity
of the ether particles (that of a grain of light), encloses a store of
energy represented by upwards of one thousand millions of footons, or the
mass of a single grain contains an energy not less than that possessed by a
mass of forty thousand tons, moving at the speed of a canon ball (1200 feet
per second); or otherwise, a quantity of matter representing the mass of
one grain endued with the velocity of the ether particles, encloses an
amount of energy which, if entirely utilized, would be competent to project
a weight of one hundred thousand tons to a height of nearly two miles (1.9
miles). "

To quote from Albert Einstein: Plagiarist of the Century, first issued in
NEXUS Magazine, Volume 11, Number 1 (December-January 2004):

 One thing we can say with certainty is that Einstein did not originate the
equation E = mc2.
Then the question becomes: "Who did?"

Bjerknes (Albert Einstein, The Incorrigible Plagiarist, 2002) suggested as
a possible candidate S. Tolver Preston, who "formulated atomic energy, the
atom bomb and superconductivity back in the 1870s, based on the formula E =
mc2,  where celeritas, "c", signifies the speed of light". 

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/einstein.html

http://home.comcast.net/~xtxinc/emc2.htm


A rare book, with no copies listed for sale today, no copy at auction
within the past 25 years, 15 copies only listed in OCLC (Stanford, MIT,
LOC, etc).  



$2,500.00 US




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Michael John Thompson
Thompson Rare Books
950 Fort Street
Victoria, British Columbia
Canada V8V 3K2
250-384-9977

http://www.mjtbooks.com